I had a bit of a cursed interview with Oakland musician Tune-Yards but one brief meeting and six or so phone calls later I made this colourful story baby. The album is one of my favourite so far this year. You can read the story on the Guardian here, too.

The next of my interviews with cult hairsnippers for Noisey.com is with the totally amazing Lyndell Mansell, who not only has the coolest barnet herself but creates some of the wackiest (read: best) styles imaginable for people like Jessie J, Paloma Faith and Beth Ditto. We talked about making merkins, the cult of pink hair and why Beth Ditto rocks harder than anyone.

I've started exploring the weird and wonderful world of rad hair styles for Noisey's new fashion platform, Style Stage. Read my interview with guerilla wigmaker, Charlie Le Minduon Noisey, with lots of lovely pictures and videos, or scroll down for just the chats about rats, burkas and Lady Gaga.

Girls spend a lot of money and a lot of painful hours having hair removed from their bodies. What's up with that? If you'd told chicks in the 70s that in the future looking like a plucked chicken would be what was expected of women 365 days a year, they'd have balked. Likewise, hairstylist Charlie Mindu loves hair so much he’s like, “Why would I just style the hair on someone’s head when I can put beautiful tresses in extreme and exaggerated shapes all over their body?” (We’re paraphrasing here.) The shapes this Bergerac-born man can coax out of a bunch of hair are truly insane: cones, lip-shaped hats, flying saucer fascinators; hair with right angles so sharp a carpenter and his spirit level would bow down and worship Charlie's precision lines.

The 26-year-old guerrilla snipper has gone from cutting the hair of clubbers around Europe, to styling the locks of Peaches, Grimes, Lana Del Rey, and Florence Welch (he’s the colorist responsible for turning her hair flame-red, thus influencing the styling of Mulberry’s SS 2011 catwalk show). A surreal and experimental wigmaker and fashion designer, the Frenchman’s elaborate and weirdly erotic, hairy designs have been flaunted by near-nude models on countless fashion week catwalks, and by Lady Gaga, you know, just around town.

Noisey: When did you start hairdressing?Charlie Mindu: I was 13. My parents are gypsies and I stopped going to school and started working in a traditional, grandmother-style hair salon. Then when I was about 15, I worked in a punk hairdressers in Bordeaux, where I learned about [cooler hairstyles]. I was 17 when I moved to Berlin on my own. I had no money and I couldn’t speak German or English, so I started doing haircuts for queers in nightclubs to make money.

That's an unusual career trajectory. What was your strangest job?I think it was when I used to shave the bears in the dark rooms at Berghain/Panorama Bar in Berlin. That was the weirdest hair-cutting job ever.

But now you sort out Lady Gaga’s locks. What’s the best look you’ve created for her?The one in the "Bad Romance" video: she was wearing my lips wig backwards on her head. We were trying to recreate the looks from the McQueen catwalk [in Paris, 2009], but doing a different version, so it looked the same from the front, but it was my lips at the back.

What was the first hairstyle you fell in love with?The one that struck me the most was Cher’s red wig in the “Believe” video. I was really young and it was funny to me because she looked like a drag queen.

Is that when your fascination with wigs and hair extensions began?It was since I started hairdressing, really. I fell in love with them because I could create anything with them. Wigs can change the face of someone so easily and quickly. But I started making them in 2006, for Peaches. She wanted very long hair, to her feet. After that, I started to do different things. I made her a huge hairy monster costume and I created enormous wigs for her backing dancers, The Tranimals [on her last tour]. Peaches wanted to cover their faces so that they were genderless.

What’s great about working with Peaches?I can do what I want every time. She’s so easygoing and creative, which is inspiring. She cares about her image, but she doesn’t care about being pretty. I think everyone should be like that. If a woman wants to be hairy, it’s normal, it’s just nature and there should be no judgment. They don’t have to get a bikini wax every day. I love punk and heavy metal music and heavy metal women like [former Runaways guitarist] Lita Ford because they’re strong like that too.

What’s the best wig you’ve made?The one I did recently in the new Basement Jaxx video for “Back 2 The Wild.” It’s like a cone head with braids on it. It’s actually very African and tribal.

You’ve done a lot of work with musicians, are you picky about who you style?I have so many celebrities that ask me every week—like big girl bands—whether I can do their hair, you know, like Essex girl style. But it’s so boring, I just can’t say yes. I prefer working with people that are more underground and are more open about their image, because then their hairstyle is more of a collaboration. And most importantly it’s the best shop window for me to the wider public.

But you’re not averse to shocking people? You’ve sent naked models down the catwalk before…My specialty is to make wigs and for those looks I wanted the women to show that hair and nothing else. But it was really annoying that everyone was shocked about it. If you go to any museum, you always see naked people in art, but in fashion people are so stuck up and find it so scary. I love strong women that are proud of themselves and I just wanted to show that on the catwalk.

And for your other catwalk shows?My first one in 2009 was scandalous too because I made a burka from rats and mice. I wanted to use fur, but I didn’t have any money so I went for the cheapest fur, which was from rats and mice. A friend of mine does taxidermy so we bought the rats and mice from the pet shop—they were dead, obviously, the snakes had eaten them—and then my friend taxidermied them. But it was a big scandal. If I had have used fox fur, no one would have said anything, but because I used rodents…

So there wasn’t a political message behind it?No. I just needed to be cheap.

Has a job ever stressed you out?Yes, the first one was when I went on tour with the B-52s. I was really excited about getting to do their huge beehives and I love their music. But when I arrived on the first day of their comeback, they refused to do the beehive and they just wanted really normal hair, so I was a bit disappointed. They just wanted really normal waves; it was nothing as amazing as their beehives.

Who of your clients has surprised you the most?Lana Del Rey always wants to go bigger. I’ve never put so many extensions on someone’s head. I’m sure even Katie Price doesn’t have that many extensions!

This interview with Don Letts and his son Jet, and Norman Jay and his son Russ, is probably one of my favourite pieces that I've done for Time Out. I'm a huge fan of doing family-themed articles and managed to shoehorn them into the Clubbing section a number of times. This one originally appeared in a July 2011 issue of Time Out – you can read the entire thing on the website here or check it out below.

Afternoon! I'm just back from Vietnam and raring to go. I've been saving this for a special occasion, so here we go. It's my favourite piece of writing so far, so please be gentle, and a profile of the man with the best name in dance music, Orlando Higginbottom, aka the wonderful headdress-sporting Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The feature originally appeared in Mixmag's July issue and can also be read in full on their website here. Or, as it happens, after the jump.

Last year, I interviewed Miss Ditto for her fantastic solo EP with Simian Mobile Disco; this year, it's for her new (fifth) studio album with Gossip (note: no longer with the 'the'). The album, 'A Joyful Noise', is a continuation of her work with SMD, Gossip relegated to the role of the a backing band as, here, producer Brian Higgins shapes Ditto into a slick glossy pop diva. Still, she is sweet and lovely and it's impossible not to be swept up in her cosy southern drawl.

Read my interview with her, originally published in Time Out London's music section, after the jump, in which she talks about making joyful noises and whether Rihanna is having a 'sexual awakening'…

In April, I had the pleasure of writing the sleevenotes for a compilation by one the country's most respected DJ and producers, Andrew Weatherall. His contribution to the 'Masterpieces' series on Ministry of Sound is out in all good record shops now. You can read the sleevenotes in full after the jump. Hope you enjoy.

This year I edited Time Out London's 2012 Festival Guide and we put one of my favourite bands, Hot Chip, on the cover. I interviewed them about their forthcoming (and ruddy excellent) new album 'In Our Heads' and sleeping through festival performances. Here's the original version on Time Out but you can read the extended version after the jump.

Parisian techno producer Brodinski tells Kate Hutchinson how he has spun his feelings into a new mix for the Fabric compilation series to celebrate the art of DJing and the life of his late friend, DJ Mehdi…

Look how excited he is! Yes, Mylo, he of "Da da da da, drop the pressure" fame is back. He has been, like, throwing underground parties an' that at Dalston Superstore in east London for most of the year. But on October 8, he gonna take it to XOYO once more with Ed Banger young gun Breakbot and loads of other face-splitting electro DJs.

Read my interview with him from waaay back in May after the jump. It's all about comebacks and Charles Kennedy. WIN.

Electro big-hitters come and go, but this year, the likes of Daft Punk, Justice, Cassius, MSTRKRFT and even Digitalism have returned with a synth-heavy wallop. So it feels like good timing that Myles MacInnes - better known to the world as Mylo - is fighting back this year with them.

Mylo's disappearance from the music world baffled everyone, from his fans (of which he still has plenty) to critics, for whom it is has become an insider's joke. The Hackney-based Scot hasn't released anything since his massive 'Detroy Rock & Roll' album in 2004, bar a couple of low-key remixes and Mixmag cover CDs, having been stuck in music industry purgatory for nearly five years.

But in the last two months, and armed with a new synthetic disco sound, Mylo has been putting on small word-of-mouth parties, Ecstasy, Passion & Pain, at Dalston Superstore, with the pork-pie-hat-topped help of Andy Peyton, who books Get Loaded, Together and Moda.

Before his headline set at the latest Moda night at XOYO this weekend, we caught up with the producer and were delighted to find him chirpy, insightful and, despite being out of current music for so long, incredibly interesting. In his first interview in we-can't-remember-how-long, he reveals why he's been out of the spotlight for such a long time, why he might never tour again, getting banned from Space Ibiza and how he's been larging it with the Lib Dems.

Mylo, where have you been?
For reasons I'm not at liberty to discuss, I haven't been able to release music in a couple of years, but hopefully it's not going to stay that way for ever. It's been quite frustrating in parts; I can't believe that it has been so long now! I stopped promoting the first album in 2006, and I didn't think that the next four years were going to pan out the way that they did. I've continued to do the occasional DJ gig, which is what I never set out to do. But I've really enjoyed it. I've also spent time working on new material and remixes, of which I have a fair bit now, and I just need to work out whether I should come back with it in some ridiculous way that involves a triple album or something! But, seriously, I'm just really looking forward to being able to release again.

Do you feel under pressure?
Perhaps in 2007 I did, but now there's been so much water under the bridge, and I've continued in a much more eccentric and not very 'pop' kind of way. I listen to the stuff in the Top 40 now and I think, that's not where I want to be. And to be perfectly honest, I don't know whether I want to set foot inside a tour bus again either: they are smelly, claustrophobic, carpeted submarines. I had a blast the first time, but it was a bit of an accident and I'm not going to spend the next few years trying to consciously replicate that.
How did your secret pop-up nights at Dalston Superstore come about?
I'm a real fan of the place; I find it really fun and inclusive. I ended up hanging out there quite a lot and then they had a few Fridays free, and it all happened very quickly. I wanted a night that summed up the over-the-top drama of disco music, and Ecstasy, Passion & Pain were a disco band in the 1970s, so it fitted well. I enjoy the melodrama of disco, definitely.

Is it part of a comeback masterplan?
[Laughs] I'd love to say yes, but I'm not sure I believe in comebacks. I'm just glad to do this in the meantime. I don't know how long we'll keep going with it - at the moment we've got a policy for Belgian-only disco DJ guests, as it's at the forefront of the new new nu-disco sound - so I think we'll just keep going until we run out of Belgians. We had my friends Villa play last Friday, and then The Magician, formerly of Aeroplane, is the next guest. I'd love to have The Glimmers come over and play, but it's a free club, so I have to rely on favours to make it work. I can't imagine being able to book Soulwax anytime soon!

It's a very nu-disco path you're going down - how did you start out in that direction?
During the last year or so, I've moved away from the electro noise scene. My interest started out with Italo and the cheesy, synthetic side of it and then that eventually broadened out into other sub-genres: boogie and so on. I must admit, the classic idea of disco with a diva wailing over a percussive background doesn't quite do it for me, but it's all the other interesting bits in and around that that I like. I think it's an amazing time for disco music.

On your Facebook, you've posted up a lot of political articles, particularly about the recent AV referendum - is activism an important part of your life now?
It's not something that I ever thought I'd be doing, but I was really proud that the Yes To Fair Votes AV campaign approached me. I've always grown up with Charles Kennedy - he was the constituency MP in Skye - so I'm a big fan. I think that Charles Kennedy, drunk, is a much better leader than David Cameron, sober! They had some parties in London that I DJ'd for and that had a few Lib Dem politicians there. Then I went door-to-door with the Lib Dems in the Cazenove ward in Stoke Newington a few weeks ago - although it's a big orthodox Jewish area and I don't think they vote much, so I don't know how much effect it had.

You could have slipped everyone a new mix CD too, that might have helped?
That's an idea that I should have had! I was quite a depressing eye-opener, though. Of course, everyone was unhappy about how the vote went…

Obviously there are exceptions, but it's unusual for DJs to be open about politics - it's quite an 'electro taboo'.
I care a lot about politics, but I don't spend a lot of time online trying to promote anything. The first album I made wasn't, other than quite blatantly taking the piss out of American fundamentalism and so on, much of a “political record”. But I had a lot of respect for [electronic producer] Ewan Pearson this week - he wrote an incredibly succinct blog about the ethics of playing in Israel. The complete absence of politics in music these days compared to 25 or 30 years ago isn't great, but DJs make party music and people don't suddenly want to be thumped over the head with some well-intentioned political music at the same time. Then again, I'm not aware of anyone “unfollowing” me on Facebook because I posted up a few links to a campaign. And I don't really mind being seen as a well-intentioned lefty who got completely fucked over by the Tories!
Will you tour again?
A lot of things have changed; the friends who I did the live show with are off doing different thing, so I don't know whether there'll be a band. I've an aversion to touring, so we'll see what happens. I imagine that there will be a CD and it will be available. And I'm playing at some festivals, and at one of the better, crazy, smaller raves at Secret Garden Party [on the main stage, as well as a secret set elsewhere]. And I'm going to play at Space in Ibiza in a few weeks, which will be great because I've been unofficially blacklisted there.

How did you manage that?
I played an unbelievably bad set. It was about 10 o'clock in the morning, I don't think I'd been to bed and it was a trainwreck in every possible way. The mixing was messy and the music was perhaps wrong as well. I thought what I was playing was quite cool - I even played 'Space is the Place', a classic electro track. But, in any case, I was notoriously terrible at DJing to begin with and now I hope I've got the hang of it.

Like Hyperdub, Hotflush, Hemlock and other labels beginning with 'H', Hessle Audio is redefining the sound of UK dance music. It procures a futuristic blend of homegrown genres like dubstep, house, garage and jungle - a genreless smörgåsbord represented in mainstream by BBC Sound of 2011 winner James Blake, who released a single on the label last year - and eschews them for a new school of electronic fans.

The imprint is led by young London-based producers Ramadanman (22-year-old David Kennedy), Pangaea (Kevin McAuley, 25) and Ben UFO (Ben Thomson, 24), who met each other at dubstep night FWD>> in London, and named after the road that the latter two lived on during their university years in Leeds. Now in their early twenties, their output is on everyone from minimal superstar Ricardo Villalobos to techno legend Carl Craig's radar.

Read the full interview with the future stars of London nightlife on Time Out London HERE.

Polly Jean Harvey’s illustrious career makes the kind of Herculean reading that causes our over-anxious generation of success-hungry twentysomethings to quake in its distressed leather army boots. At 42, she has released eight enviably diverse records, won the Mercury Music Prize in 2001 for one of them, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, been nominated for every music gong going, collaborated with the likes of Josh Homme and former beau Nick Cave and topped innumerable ‘Best Of Being Awesome’ polls. She has even scored a Broadway production of Hedda Gabler – and that’s all just a Wikipedia-crunching taster.